When you’ve travelled a certain distance with your car, you take it to the vehicle maintenance centre for a service: the oil is changed, the oil filter is replaced, worn out parts are substituted by new ones and the engine is tuned. Many other pieces of equipment in your home must similarly be serviced from time to time. It is therefore reasonable to wonder if your laptop must also be serviced.

There are only a few moving parts in a laptop and they do not cause the same level of friction as in a car. These parts do not need to be oiled or replaced on a routine basis and in this sense a laptop does not require the same level of maintenance service as a car.

These two are often related: excessive dust inside the laptop prevents the machine from being cooled sufficiently. No matter how clean you keep the environment and how much you try to avoid dust penetrating your laptop, inevitably some dust will get to the delicate interior parts of your machine. It is therefore important that your laptop is opened at least once a year to remove dust. But it is not recommended that you attempt to do this yourself – leave the internal cleaning of your machine to a professional.

Removing dust from the inside of your laptop is about the sum total of servicing that is required. Of course, if some parts break down they need to be fixed or replaced. If the machine must be opened for repair work, ask the technician to remove accumulated dust at the same time – this will save you from having to do this later.

As part of preventative maintenance to ensure your laptop’s good health, you must:

protect it against excessive temperatures

keep it as dust free as possible

replace faulty or broken parts, such as a cracked casing

ensure the rubber feet underneath the laptop is intact – they fall off easily.

2 Comments to Must a laptop be serviced regularly?

AlbieTuesday, 5 May, 2009

My experience with my second laptop in 12 years is not regular service, but rather constant maintenance – i.e. keep it clean, wipe the screen with a special cloth and liquid, use cold hairdryer to remove dust, handle with care, keep it “padded” when travelling with you in your car (mine got a pillow !!) and so on. For me the keyword is maintenance daily and the service @ Mecer Workshop might not be an option, unless some serious technical issues surface.